Richard Brome

Richard Brome (d. 1652), English dramatist, was originally a servant of Ben Jonson, and owed much to his master. The development of his plots, the strongly marked characters and the amount of curious information to be found in his work, all show Jonson's influence.

The relation of master and servant developed into friendship, and our knowledge of Brome's personal character is chiefly drawn from Ben Jonson's lines to him, prefixed to The Northern Lasse (1632), the play which made Brome's reputation. Brome's genius lay entirely in comedy. He has left fifteen pieces:

• Five New Playes (ed. by Alex. Brome, 1652?) contained Madd Couple Well Matcht (acted 1639?)
• Novella (acted 1632); Court Begger (acted 1632)
• City Witt
• The Damoiselle or the New Ordinary
• Five New Playes (1659) included The English Moor, or The Mock Marriage; The LoveSick Court, or The Ambitious Politique; Covent Garden Weeded; The New Academy, or The New Exchange; and The Queen and Concubine.
• The Antipodes (acted 1638, pr. 1640)
• The Sparagus Garden (acted 1635, pr. 1640)
• A Joviall Crew, or the Merry Beggars (acted 1641, pr. 1652, revised in 1731 as an opera )
• The Queenes Exchange (pr. 1657)

He collaborated with Thomas Heywood in The late Lancashire Witches (pr. 1634).

See AW Ward, History of English Dramatic Literature, vol. iii. pp. 125131 (1899). The Dramatic Works of Richard Brome were published in 1873.

Reference

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.